Bible Study
Prayer through Suffering
By Cynthia Hyle Bezek
I’ve always prayed. But I haven’t always prayed with passion. I prayed good words. I prayed for good things. But my heart wasn’t always engaged, and my prayers sometimes felt sterile.
Then came the year my world fell apart. For the first time in my life I recognized my utter powerlessness. My life had careened out of control, and I couldn’t do a thing about it.
My women’s Bible class was studying Psalms that year. I was surprised to discover that the psalmists weren’t always pious and joyful when they prayed. And, contrary to what I’d heard, not every psalm ends in praise. But the biggest aha moment for me was this: David, the man after God’s own heart, prayed his guts out! Some of his prayers were anguished, raw, and messy. It made me wonder—if he could pray his unvarnished emotions, could I do that, too?
I decided to try it. I wouldn’t pray with measured, holy-sounding words. I wouldn’t write with neat script in my pretty journal. No, I would tell God how I felt about things—how I really felt. And if it wasn’t pretty, well, that’s just how it would have to be.
God seemed up for it. He even set the stage by sending a terrific thunderstorm. The dark clouds and booming thunder matched my mood. So I went outside, and, in the torrential rain, I screamed out my fear and confusion to God. Oblivious to how drenched I was becoming, I prayed as never before. It sounded like no prayer I’d ever heard in church. But I knew it was prayer. It was probably the most real prayer I’d ever prayed up to that point. And it felt good. It was cathartic.
I didn’t hear God’s response, but I felt it. His peace came over me, quieting my troubled soul, letting me know He was there, and that He would continue to be, come what may.
I learned later there is a name for this kind of prayer-in-suffering: it’s called lament. I don’t know how I’d missed this. It turns out that lament prayers pepper the entire Bible, especially the Old Testament. Psalms is where we find most of them—approximately one-third of the Psalms are laments! But they show up in lots of other places, too—Job, Isaiah, and Jeremiah, for instance. There’s even an entire book of the Bible dedicated to praying in suffering. It’s called—no surprise—Lamentations.
It seems that God created laments for those who are praying in times of suffering. When we pray lament, we are in good company with some of the saintliest of God’s saints. After all, what better to do in times of suffering than to pour out our hearts to God?
Discussion Questions
After reading each of these laments from Psalms, jot down notes to the questions that follow:
- Psalm 6:1–10
- Psalm 13:1–4
- Psalm 25:16–20
- Psalm 38:1–22
What kinds of suffering are mentioned or alluded to in these laments?
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What kinds of things do the lamenters ask God to do?
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In what ways do the lamenters demonstrate faith?
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Did anything from these passages surprise you? If so, note them here.
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Read Psalm 22:1–24, the prayer that Jesus prayed from the cross during His deepest suffering. What connections would Jesus have made between the psalmist’s experience and His own? How does knowing that Jesus lamented encourage or challenge you in your own prayer life?
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We’ve seen that prayers of lament are often very personal. But lamenting is also appropriate in other circumstances. Read the following laments, then answer the questions that follow.
- 2 Chronicles 20:5–12
- Psalm 94:2–4
- Daniel 9:3–19
- Habakkuk 1:2–4
What kinds of suffering were these people experiencing?
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When might you find yourself wanting to pray a lament similar to one of these?
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Action Steps
Sometimes it’s hard to find words to pray when we are suffering. Praying Scripture helps. Choose one of the psalms from the previous list. Copy it and carry it with you in your pocket or purse. When your circumstances feel overwhelming, borrow the psalmist’s words and tell God about your suffering.
The text I chose: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Use Habakkuk 3 as a model for writing your own prayer of lament. It can be a lament for yourself, for someone you love, or it could be more general, like a prayer for your nation or for the persecuted Church around the world. Make sure to include both parts to your prayer—the statement of suffering’s cause and the “though” statement that declares your faith despite the circumstances.
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CYNTHIA HYLE BEZEK is a regular contributor to Prayer Connect and director of curriculum for Community Bible Studies.